Thursday, February 23, 2006

A Sentimental Yarn

When I realized that my whole knitting life was turning into a lace festival, I decided I'd better add something simpler to occupy my time on the train and preserve what passes for my sanity.

At Rhinebeck, I only made one yarn purchase (no, seriously). It was, ironically, the first yarn I saw. I fell in love with it instantly.

It's from a firm in Texas called Brooks Farms and it's a variegated wool/silk worsted called Four Play. (Snicker.) The colorway snagged my attention, and Joe's, too–he also bought some. The price was amazingly fair. I put the two hanks away in my stash, thinking I would make a hat and scarf for myself from it when the time came.

And then, two days ago, the time came.

I've never used a variegated yarn before, aside from the self-patterning stuff that went into my Mary Thomas Test Sock. I knew variegated yarns often don't work well in textured patterns, but I really did not want to do a scarf in plain garter stitch.

So I got this idea. There's a famous pattern called King Charles Brocade that was so named because it appears in a silk undershirt that was worn by poor old King Charles I on the day his head got snicked off. It has been preserved and apparently has blood on it. Is that cool or what?*

Anyhow, I loved both the pattern and the historical association, and wondered if the mix of a seed stitch lattice and the stockinette panels might work well with the variegation. Seed stitch causes purl "bloops" of color to show up on both sides of the fabric, while stockinette would (or so I guessed) show up as simple rows of a single color.

Slap my ass and call me Sally if it didn't work out that way.

Here's what it looks like at the moment.

Between the quality of the yarn, the happy memories it holds, and the stitch pattern, this is rapidly becoming a favorite. I'm usually more about process than product, but I'm rabid to get this thing around my neck.

Broadway Baaaaaabies

The chorus line of high-kicking sheep I posted a while back seemed to have struck a chord with people, so they're the latest addition to the shop. The design (except for the knitting bag) is the first to include the name of this blog. Is that obnoxious? Be honest. If you'd prefer the shirt without the blog name, I'm interested to know.

The front of the shirts has this design. The back has a full-on Rockettes-style extravaganza with three lines of 15 wooly cuties who want to tap, tap, tap their way into your hearts.

Sing it with me now:

A pretty sheep is like a melody,That haunts you night and day.Just like the strain of a haunting refrain,She'll start upon a marathonAnd run around your brain.You can't escape–she's in your memory,By morning, night and noon.She will leave you and thenCome back again.A pretty sheep is just like a pretty tune.

*If this is one of those knitting myths, like Aran patterns being particular to a family so that drowned fisherman could be identified from their ganseys, I don't want to know. Not yet. So don't tell me.

66 comments:

Love, love, love Brooks Farm yarn. Your scarf looks lovely! I did a Clapotis in Harmony, their silk merino blend, in Red Hot Chili Salsa. Absolutely lovely to knit with..... Brooks is not going to be able to keep up with their orders.

My only reservation is that I should have gone down a needle size as it knitted up looser than I thought it would, so it is huge!

I, for one, have no reservation using these painted yarns in almost any context. That's me--throwing conventional wisdom to the winds. I think reflects how I work with bead weaving.

blog name, most deaFin-8-ly. and double five low slap to the rumph my dear Sally...great use of color and texture. i love verigated yarns, even for my humble never ending washcloths. watch me copy off ya! LOL I like long skinny scarves too, so how wide is that?

I love your scarf - I did one in this pattern for my pre-teen son a couple years ago, and he actually used it.

I don't remember the pattern in the material, but when I was in England about 17 years ago I saw King Charles' bloody shirt. It was in a case in a fairly dark room, but the shirt did indeed have blood stains (faded) around the neck. Fascinating but disgusting.

Brooks Farm was at Stitches West last weekend and it is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! I bought quit a bit of it and am DYING to use it. I'm very happy that I can order this online, but you definitely have to see/feel it to appreciate how awesome it is.

Oh my god. Why in the world wouldn't they just bury him in what he was wearing at the time? Who had the nasty task of undressing him? Did they intend to display the bloody shirt all along? Is that why they didn't keep his pants? My lunch has been ruined with these disturbing questions.

I just read about that shirt last weekend,and the symbolism associated with that (and other old) patterns. But the photo in my book wasn't very clear, so I was really interested to see it up close in your photo. But the irony of using that pattern for something to warm the neck and the head :lol:But I think it works really well with the variegated yarn. Will definitely keep that idea in mind. Thanks for the inspiration!

That scarf is going to be completely gorgeous. If I were within 5 states of you I'd sneak to your place and snake it out of your closet.I generally don't like words or names on my clothing, but the sheep are cute enough that I'll probably buy the durned thing anyway.DANG I wish I could wear wool. (How cruel is it that a knitter with the maiden name of Lamb is allergic to wool?)

I love that pattern. I will definetly file it away under must use. I am still developing a stash so nothing is calling out to me yet. All in good time! I love the sheeps. They make me laugh - with or without the blog name.

My inner pedant says it was Charles I not II (II probably died of syphilis - if not, it wasn't for want of trying).

I think the clothes of a condemned criminal (which is what Charlie-boy was being classed as) were one of the executioner's perks - there was a flourishing market in second-hand clothing at the time. Very few people wore new clothes.

Well, Sally ;-) I love the new shirt design, but since that was my first trip to your shop, and since I can only spring for one shirt right now, it's going to have to be the Venus Tee. What's going to make it look especially awesome on *this* knitter is that I still have my arms, but I'm missing a leg LOL. My friends are going to die laughing. Can't wait. (love the scarf, btw)

How wonderful to get the link to Brooks Farm! I bought some of this yarn three years ago in Texas, lost the tags, and haven't been able to find it again, not having attended any event in which they were selling since. I saw one pic on their website and knew it was the same. So someone in Chicago who bought the yarn in the northeast led me to a source in Texas, where I live. Thank you!

Franklin, that is fan-friggin-tiful (you know what I mean!). The yarn is stunning by itself, but the texture your knitting creates really makes it pop... it's sort of: now you see, now you don't. Initially I didn't consciously see it, but then I did a double-take because I knew there was something interesting my brain had seen which my eyes hadn't registered. I saw some yarn that looked just like this today, but it was a different name (buggered if I can remember)... I was horrified at the price at the time, but now I am seriously considering it after seeing what wonderful results you are having.

Love the King Charles Brocade. Made my sister a scarf with that pattern, and it even looks pretty in a solid color. But I love the way it looks in the varigated... I think if I had a sheep, I might take it over to Nina's on Division...

Brooks Farm is just up the road from me, and we love their yarn, here in the tropic of Texas, no matter how hot it may get.

I don't think the King Charles stuff is a myth. I think the shirt is still around. I think the Bishop mentions it in his book, but I'm too pooped (Oh wait -- that's a different post!) to go look it up.MEM

OOOH Franklin, thank you. I am a fan of King Charles Brocade, and have a cotton swatch in my library. I have some varigated yarn that I couldn't figure out what to do with. Looking at your swatch did it for me.

Re: recreating the waistcoat --Charles 1's silk knitted undershirt is at the Museum of London. It's knitted at some outrageously small stitch gauge -- 17 to 21 st/in., maybe? -- but ought to be easy enough to figure out from the picture. In fact, I'm sort of trying to do just that for another 17th/18th c. knitted undershirt. But I'm not a (complete) glutton for punishment; my recreated version will probably be knitted at around 7 to 9 stitches/inch. Maybe. If I get around to it.

The legend includes the tidbit that execution day was chilly, so Chas I asked for an extra layer because he didn't want to be seen shivering and having onlookers think it was nerves rather than temperature.

Love the blog and the dancing sheep. I'd definitely wear the shirt to a knitters' gathering. On the other hand, I would rapidly tire of trying to explain to my literary theory geek friends why there are dancing sheep associated with the panopticon. Good God! You have created the ultimate torture device for a knitting lit student!

Ooooh, I don't even care if it's not really the pattern from Charles Stewart's chemise, I just figured out what to do with the lovely but highly variegated Valley Berkshire I have in the Amethyst colourway. My Granny's a Stewart, and I used to walk past the spot where he was terminated on my way to class every Wednesday.

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